Can you ever break a law without sinning?

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When I was younger I was a police officer. There’s just gobbs of laws that bunches of people got together and passed. Many are quite meaningless.

We must remember that if we’re driving 31 mph in a 30 mph zone we’re breaking the law.
Even if we do this on purpose, it’s questionable if it’s sinful. When the law is concerning harm to our fellow man, we have a whole new ballgame.

The purpose of the law is to protect people from those who would hurt us. As the amount of hurt increases, the severity of sinfulness increases. When it comes to hurting someone, you can’t ever hurt someone purposely without sinning.
 
Well, in MN it is technically illegal to sleep naked. I am willing to bet many people have broken this law. But were they sinning? Not all! 😉

Also, all bathtubs in MN must have feet. (oops - I have 2 tubs in my house, but neither have feet!)

For those of you familiar with Minneapolis, Lake Street is one of the main East/West streets through the city. It is illegal to drive a red car down that street.

In St. Cloud, MN, one may not eat a hamburger on Sundays.

I think it is safe to say many of these laws are broken frequently, and it is probably safe to say they are not sinning when they do!

(I can just hear the priest at the next confession = “I confess I have 2 tubs in my house without feet, and I confess I ate a hamburger when I was in St. Cloud last Sunday. Oh, and I almost forgot…I drove down Lake Street in my red car, too.” :cool:)
 
Catholic90 said:
Well, in MN it is technically illegal to sleep naked. I am willing to bet many people have broken this law. But were they sinning? Not all! 😉
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LOL, really?!? Do you have a source? I’m LMAO!!
Also, all bathtubs in MN must have feet. (oops - I have 2 tubs in my house, but neither have feet!
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So what, they want you to cut off your feet and put them in the tub, hahaha. :rotfl:
 
Could breaking a man’s law be good in the eyes of God when done for a moral end, without taking into consideration the radical means? Like could one keep an illegal gun for self protection, speed down the street to get to the hospital, etc?

Do these questions ask the “do the ends justify the means” question? If so, say so and I will not be offended:D!
 
fish90 said:
Could breaking a man’s law be good in the eyes of God when done for a moral end, without taking into consideration the radical means? Like could one keep an illegal gun for self protection, speed down the street to get to the hospital, etc?

Do these questions ask the “do the ends justify the means” question? If so, say so and I will not be offended:D!
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I would call it an ‘ends justifies the means’ question.

You’d have to weigh up pretty carefully the nature of the evil you’re preventing by breaking the law, as well as the nature of the evil you’re causing by doing so. Think about exactly how much time you’ll save with your speeding (in normal traffic it’s usually a heck of a lot less than you’d think) compared to the increased likelihood of yourself getting into danger by speeding, and whether that extra amount of time will genuinely make a difference.

And you have to consider the availablilty of legally permissible alternatives - for example if you want to protect yourself you should probably have a baseball bat instead of a gun.
 
Acting contrary to the letter of the law in order to preserve the good which was the purpose of the law in the first place, is called epikeia. St. Thomas Aquinas gives an example:
I answer that, As stated above (I-II, 96, 6), when we were treating of laws, since human actions, with which laws are concerned, are composed of contingent singulars and are innumerable in their diversity, it was not possible to lay down rules of law that would apply to every single case. Legislators in framing laws attend to what commonly happens: although if the law be applied to certain cases it will frustrate the equality of justice and be injurious to the common good, which the law has in view. Thus the law requires deposits to be restored, because in the majority of cases this is just. Yet it happens sometimes to be injurious–for instance, if a madman were to put his sword in deposit, and demand its delivery while in a state of madness, or if a man were to seek the return of his deposit in order to fight against his country. On these and like cases it is bad to follow the law, and it is good to set aside the letter of the law and to follow the dictates of justice and the common good. This is the object of “epikeia” which we call equity. Therefore it is evident that “epikeia” is a virtue.
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newadvent.org/summa/3120.htm
 
You could ask Mishak, Shadrak, and Abendigo, the three young men in the fiery furnace who dared to defy King Nebudchadnezzar’s law. They were not being sinful, preferring to break the law at the cost of their lives.
 
bbentrup said:
You could ask Mishak, Shadrak, and Abendigo, the three young men in the fiery furnace who dared to defy King Nebudchadnezzar’s law. They were not being sinful, preferring to break the law at the cost of their lives.
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Or the Christians in all those countries where it’s illegal to own a Bible, or teach your kids about Christ, or attend a Church that isn’t run by government officials. 😦
 
There are a lot of absurd laws on the books in many states. For instance, it is illegal to stick your finger into a turkey in a supermarket in Michigan. I don’t see how that’s a sin; I mean, there’s the potential you could get salmonella germs on your finger and spread the disease, but it’s no more of a sin than forgetting to cover your mouth when you sneeze.

It is illegal to whistle underwater in Vermont. Now, there’s the risk you could breathe in water when you do that, and you might drown, but I think most people would hurry up to the surface (or try to) before that happened.

My personal favorite (since I live there): It is illegal to eat peanuts in a church in Massachusetts. Okay, that could be at least disrespectful to Christ in the Eucharist (if it’s a Catholic Church), but if a person was hungry and needed to eat because they were starving or they had a medical condition like hypoglycemia and they needed to eat so they didn’t pass out, I would think Christ would understand, just as He was cool with His apostles helping themselves to some standing grain on the Sabbath.
 
Matrix_Refugee said:
There are a lot of absurd laws on the books in many states. For instance, it is illegal to stick your finger into a turkey in a supermarket in Michigan. I don’t see how that’s a sin; I mean, there’s the potential you could get salmonella germs on your finger and spread the disease, but it’s no more of a sin than forgetting to cover your mouth when you sneeze.

It is illegal to whistle underwater in Vermont. Now, there’s the risk you could breathe in water when you do that, and you might drown, but I think most people would hurry up to the surface (or try to) before that happened.

My personal favorite (since I live there): It is illegal to eat peanuts in a church in Massachusetts. Okay, that could be at least disrespectful to Christ in the Eucharist (if it’s a Catholic Church), but if a person was hungry and needed to eat because they were starving or they had a medical condition like hypoglycemia and they needed to eat so they didn’t pass out, I would think Christ would understand, just as He was cool with His apostles helping themselves to some standing grain on the Sabbath.
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Okay, that’s just wierd… :ehh::rotfl:
 
Since we’re talking about strange laws, here’s a few. I gotta warn you, I’m not positive that all of these are true. I heard it from Christian comedian and Gospel singer Mark Lowry. 😃

In Louisiana, it’s illegal to tie an alligator to a fire hydrant. Biting someone with your natural teeth is simple assault, but biting someone with your false teeth is aggravated assault.

In Texas, it’s illegal to shoot a buffalo from a second-story window.

(this one really gets me confused) In Indiana, it’s illegal to take a bath between October and March.

Also in Indiana, it’s illegal to make a monkey smoke a cigarette.

In Alabama, it’s illegal to carry an ice-cream cone in your hip-pocket. (it’s okay to carry one in a shirt pocket, i guess :p)

In Tennessee, it is supposedly illegal for frogs to croak after midnight. I’m pretty sure he made that one up… but then they do sell frog legs…

In North Carolina, it’s illegal to sing off key. I don’t go there very often… :o
 
Okay, so we have established that breaking silly laws is not sinful. I wish to bring this thread into matters of more serious laws. I will give some examples. Please tell me if my logic is correct.

P2P music downloading- immoral, stealing

Speeding and other traffic violations- immoral when you are reckless

Not getting proper permits (car registration, hunting licenses, etc.) - immoral, stealing

Keeping an illegal firearm (not a bazooka:D)- venial, disobeying Caesar
 
In my opinion, the only time when you would not be sinning by breaking the law, is if the law is telling you to sin. (with the exception of those silly laws of course…:p) God asks us to respect authority and when you’re disobeying, you’re obviously not respecting. But then if authority tells you to disobey God, then you must above all obey the highest Authority, Jesus Christ.
 
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